A pleasant surprise

As I was rooting around in my collection, I came across the complete set of 2001 Topps Traded which I had taken out of its box so that I could use the box for something else. Right size, you know. Half of a long box. Probably to mail something. 

The stack is pretty well stuck together, as many of the Topps cards tend to when they were making with the shiny lamination. I think that it works on the molecular level so that the electrons on one card bond to the electrons on the other card for a weak nuclear bond. (Physicists will understand.) I digress, though.

As I pick up the stack, it falls into two halves, and lo and behold, in the center were two Rookie Cards, one of Sean Burroughs, the other of a not-so-bad player:

Not that it is a very valuable card, but it's nice to see a first-year card for someone who eventually ended up being more than a lifetime minor leaguer or a major league utilityman. I'd say that Soriano made it a little further than that. 

So far, he is a lifetime .288 hitter with 279 home runs and 705 RBI's in 10 seasons. That's not good enough for Cooperstown, and even if he does hit 500 homers, by that time many more players will have done it too. Even his comparables through age 32 are good, but not HOF material: Matt Williams, Ellis Burks and Raul Mondesi.